Jan. 15, 2008
Dwight Angell
Dangell1@hfhs.org

DETROIT - Henry Ford Health System has been recognized as a winner of the National Health System Patient Safety Leadership Award.

The award is a collaborative effort between the VHA Foundation and National Business Group on Health. Sharing the award was Memorial Hermann Healthcare System in Houston.

"This award recognizes health systems where senior leaders are driving a culture that places the highest value on safety," said Linda DeWolf, president of the VHA Foundation. "The safety results these health systems are seeing clearly show that their approach to safety is saving lives."

"These health care systems have succeeded at creating a culture of safety, which is a fundamental ingredient for sustainable safety improvement," said Helen Darling, president of National Business Group on Health. "We hope this award encourages other health leaders to see the enormous impact they can make if they take an active role in patient safety."

The winning health systems were chosen out of applicants from across the nation by a panel of judges representing corporations, patient safety organizations, government and health care. Applicants were selected on criteria designed to highlight the leadership of health care systems in creating a culture of safety including: system-level commitment; board and senior leadership; system-wide alignment of patient safety resources and goals; improved patient outcomes and transparency in public reporting.

Henry Ford is a non-profit, seven-hospital network with 1,787 beds and 27 outpatient medical centers located throughout southeast Michigan. Highlights from Henry Ford Winners' Patient Safety Programs include:

• All Henry Ford Health System Trustees are educated about quality and safety upon appointment to the board. A Trustee website provides board members with access to safety performance statistics, as well as the latest articles on patient safety.
• Patients are active partners in creating safety. Patients and families who have experienced a medical error are invited to and attend board meetings. Patients also helped to design and launch the system's - No Harm Campaign,�- modeled after the IHI's 5 Million Lives Campaign.
• The health system shares safety outcomes with the public on the organization's website. Updated quarterly, the site shows the system's hospital-acquired infection rate, mortality rates and other metrics related to safety. The site also provides patient education resources and free videos.
• Patient safety learning is widely shared across the system. For example, over the past 16 years, the system has held a Quality Expo where teams come together to share experiences and learn from colleagues. Trustees, system leaders, patients and employees are invited to tour the Expo to learn about safety improvements in the system.
• The system has experienced a significant reduction in mortality rates at all of its hospitals, and Henry Ford Hospital, its flagship, boasts the lowest severity-adjusted mortality rate of any large hospital in the state of Michigan.

The National Health System Patient Safety Leadership Award is a collaborative effort between the VHA Foundation, a private, not-for-profit organization focused on improving the health and health care of all Americans, and the National Business Group on Health (NBGH), the nation's only non-profit organization of large employers devoted exclusively to finding innovative solutions to health care benefits issues.